STRATUM PIER, 2010

Stratum Pier was one of eight site-specific works commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to inaugurate the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park. The pier was designed with stacked open grid layers to suggest a topographical map and to behave like an extrusion from the shoreline brush. The sculpture is both object and place, and reflects my interest in merging the natural and built environment. Terracing and curved edges are intended to reference erosion and layered growth. The lake is a bowl shaped former quarry and water levels vary as much as 10 feet with changing rainfall. At times lower levels of the pier become submerged. With time as brush and grasses recover around the site the structure will merge with the landscape to offer a viewing hide.

Lisa Freiman chairman of the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s contemporary art department curated the 100 Acres commissioned works. Stratum Pier was designed and developed with architect Jeremy Olsen of Wheeler Kearns and project engineer Chris Rockey, principal of Rockey Structures LLC, both of Chicago.